The invention relates to electronic commerce. More particularly, the invention relates to a trusted agent for use in simplifying electronic commercial transactions.
The volume of North American, customer world-wide-Web (xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d) based electronic commerce is enormous (estimated to be $5 billion in 1998). But this is still barely xc2xd percent of the $1 trillion dollar credit card transaction business. While thirty percent of North Americans are occasional Web users and ten percent are online daily, only twenty percent of Web users have purchased anything on the Web, and only a small portion of those customers purchase regularly.
First generation Web commerce systems are all based on the filling out of HTML forms. The first time a Web site is encountered, the end user must supply his name, address, phone-numbers, credit card numbers, and other personal information. This experience is analogous to being handed a clipboard and filling in an application every time you wish to purchase a quart of milk. Many customers are deterred by the bother involved in this process. Accordingly, a first requirement for customer friendly electronic commerce is:
Requirement 1: Do not make customers fill out a Web form for every new site.
Commerce Net/Nielsen have conducted annual studies where they have interviewed customers and businesses on their use and adoption of Web-based electronic commerce. These studies have repeatedly indicated that while failure to purchase has been attributed to numerous individual factors, these factors can be reduced to four root causes:
Lack of trust in credit card;
Fear of invasion of privacy by merchants;
Confusing Web page user interfaces encountered at point of purchase; and
Lack of interesting goods to buy.
These problems can be identified as shortcomings in state of the art electronic commerce systems. Solving these problems requires at least the provision of a system that addresses the following additional design requirements:
Requirement 2: Provide customers with trust;
Requirement 3: Provide customers with privacy;
Requirement 4: Provide customers with help navigating customer Web pages; and
Requirement 5: Provide customers with help finding the goods they want.
Previous Attempts at Bridging the Gap
Early attempts at addressing the problems discussed above via customer application technology, referred to generically as electronic wallets, have yet to be successful. Typically, these wallets provide technology focused customer-side applications that implement specific cryptographic protocols. These applications are not user friendly.
First Generation Wallets
CyberCash, DigiCash, IBM, and other companies have created purchasing applications that allow customers/merchants to conduct secure transactions. These applications have been distributed both on disk (floppies and CDROMs) and dynamically downloaded at time of customer purchase, Anecdotal evidence indicates that customers dislike installing software at time of customer purchase. The bother about the installation process, the fears of incorrect installation, and security problems deter shoppers. For the majority of customers, shopping is a pleasurable experience, while software installation is drudgery.
Requirement 6: Do not require users to install any application to get started.
Second Generation Wallets
Microsoft""s Wallet (Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) is built into the Internet Explorer browser. This wallet does assist in saving users from repeatedly typing in their credit card information. However, merchants have to use Microsoft""s Site Server product to use the Microsoft wallet. Adoption of the Microsoft wallet by merchants is slow. Merchants prefer to continue to do business with the least common denominator. Even sites that are advertised to use the Microsoft Wallet by Microsoft do not seem to actually use it.
Requirement 7: Do not require merchants to switch merchant servers to get started.
Third Generation Wallets
Sun Microsystems of Mountain View, Calif. offers a Java Wallet strategy that is designed to overcome the foregoing problem. The Java Wallet provides a user friendly design, multiple payment mechanisms, automatic form fill out, and gives users incentives to install the application. The Java Wallet still requires an initial install. The success of this strategy is not yet known.
It would be advantageous to provide a customer-friendly electronic commerce system that meets the above identified requirements for electronic commerce.
The trusted agent server disclosed herein is a networked application that assists a customer in managing their online commercial affairs. Although the presently preferred embodiment of the trusted agent server is an electronic commerce application, the trusted agent has broad use in other business domains including, for example, finance, medicine, investment, entertainment, and education.
The trusted agent server can be thought of as a third party that holds and manages the user""s business affairs, such as a credit card, a product warranty, an insurance card, or any business contract. User""s contact the server by way of a network access device, such as a browser on a personal computer, a browser on a network computer, a browser on a cell phone, or using a voice response unit on a telephone.
The trusted agent client component is a small customer program that augments the user""s network access device to perform business transactions on behalf of the user. The user controls these transactions through the trusted agent server.
The trusted agent service is the trusted agent client component application which operates in conjunction with the trusted agent server. The trusted agent service in its first embodiment is an Internet-based mechanism that makes single-click buying available on any commercial Web site. This mechanism brings the speed and simplicity of credit card use in the real world to its users on the Internet. The secure nature, and bank and credit card company branding, provided by this mechanism projects the trust association necessary at the point-of-sale to address customer fears about security. This mechanism is a browser-based service that requires no download or installation, and may always be made available to the customer free of charge.
The trusted agent also provides customers with access to personal and credit card information used during single-click transactions, smart receipts used for ongoing customer support, merchant and product preference settings, and direct response product offerings keyed to these preferences. Because this information is all stored on the trusted agent server (similar to popular Web portal personal preferences), it is available on any device connected to the Internet, from desktop to laptop, even to PDA.
The trusted agent service is implemented by accessing the trusted agent server. Typically, trusted agent servers are operated by banks, government agencies, credit card companies, and other contractually reliable trusted agent service providers.
The trusted agent server communicates with other commerce servers. Some of these servers are designed to work closely with the trusted agent server. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, two such commerce servers are the direct response server and relationship marketing servers. Merchants and banks use these servers to communicate to customers who have accounts on a trusted agent service. These products enable such merchants and banks to conduct ongoing business relationships with customers by sending and making use of information stored online in the customer""s trusted agent.